The present invention relates to a system and method for detecting an air leak. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for detecting an air leak in an air bed having one or more separate air chambers.
Advances made in the quality of air beds having air chambers as support bases have resulted in vastly increased popularity and sales of such air beds. These air beds are advantageous in that they have an electronic control panel which allows a user to select a desired inflation setting for optimal comfort and to change the inflation setting at any time, thereby providing changes in the firmness of the bed.
One feature inherent in all air beds is a slight variation in air chamber pressure over time. Specifically, it is well known that the pressure in an air chamber will vary over time with changes in the ambient temperature and barometric pressure. Thus, a user may set their air bed at a maximum firmness on one day, only to find that the bed feels slightly softer a few days later.
Because air beds are still a relatively new form of sleeping surface as compared with traditional innerspring mattresses, the majority of the population is not familiar with their operation. As a result, it is not uncommon for a recent purchaser of an air bed to set their bed at a desired firmness level only to find out that their bed must be “re-adjusted” to the desired firmness level at a later time. As a result, many users that experience this type of phenomenon believe their bed must have an air leak and call the customer service department at the bed manufacturer to express their concerns.
Under these circumstances, the customer service department will typically respond by telling the customer to fill up the chambers in the air bed to their maximum pressure, disconnect the pump, place a cap member on the chambers, and call back in a day or two if the chamber pressures have decreased. However, this type of process does not take into account pressure losses resulting from changes in ambient temperature or barometric pressure. Thus, for a small decrease in chamber pressure, it may be difficult to determine if the pressure decrease is the result of a slow leak or merely the chamber's response to changes in its surroundings.
Therefore, there is a need for a leak detection method for an air bed that is able to disregard any reduction in chamber pressure due to changes in ambient temperature and barometric pressure in order to more accurately determine whether an air chamber contains a leak.